Hot Cocktails Competition: One Lucky Voracious Reader Drinks For Free

You know we love you, right? You know that we spend all day, typing our fingers to the bone just to keep you abreast of all the late-breaking Four Loko news food news, rumors, gossip, ridiculous lists, strange videos and weird little restaurant-world slap fights? And when that's not enough--when we still don't feel as though we have given enough to you, the good, food-lovin' people of Seattle, sometimes we even give stuff away. Occasionally, it's even stuff that people want.

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Well let me tell you, my little Blog-o-Land friends... Now I have something that you're really going to want. I have something you're going to want so bad that you'll be willing to write a (short) essay for it. And do you know how I know you're going to want it so bad?

Because it involves free drinks. And you, dear readers, are just a wicked bunch of lushes.

Thankfully, so are we. And that's why we're proud to present Seattle Weekly's Hot Cocktails--a nice little booze-up and competition scheduled to go down on December 5 at 7pm at Liberty (517 15th Avenue East, right at the height of Capitol Hill). Some of the city's best bars (including Mistral Kitchen, Vessel and La Bete) will be there, mixing up hot cocktails on a cold winter's night. But the real draw will be a competition, with a twist...

See, it would've been easy for us to get these bars to bring in their best bottle-slingers and make them go up against each other in a contest of who could craft the best drink. But everyone does that kind of thing. So what we thought would be better (and funnier, and much more amusing to watch) would be if the bars had to pick from among their regular customers to find competitors, and then allow their bartenders only to act as backup to these amateur craftsmen.

Those in attendance will get to sample all the drinks, sure. But only one of you lucky sons-of-bitches will get to sit in judgement of his or her fellow rummies, right alongside Liberty owner Andrew Friedman and Mike Seely, Seattle Weekly managing editor and author of Seattle's Best Dive Bars: Drinking & Diving in the Emerald City, and help to decide who goes home with the coveted Hot Cocktails Trophy. Or plaque. Or certificate or handshake or pat on the head or whatever we end up deciding to bestow upon the person who mixes up the best drink of the night.

So what do you have to do to be worthy of such an honor? Simple: In the comments section, tell me the story of the one drink that changed your life. Maybe it was the first one you bought for your now-wife or husband. Maybe it was the last swallow of tequila before biting that priest. Maybe it was the last shot you had before reporting for prison--whatever. Anyone whose spent enough time in and around bars to be qualified for this solemn duty has at least one story about a drink that changed their life, for better or worse.

Tell it and you might be sitting pretty come December 5, surrounded by friends, fellows and free booze. Or, you know, keep it to yourself and just stay home that night and drink alone on your couch...